Selfridge: one of America's oldest air bases

Out on the shore of Lake St. Clair in Harrison Township sits Selfridge Air National Guard Base. The 127th Wing calls it one of the oldest continuously operating military airfields in the United States. Its first flight took off on July 8, 1917, after the Army leased land from Packard president Henry Joy and turned his aviation field into a pilot-training base.

The Army named the field for Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge, who died while flying with Orville Wright in 1908 and became the first person killed in a powered-airplane crash. The base later trained members of the Tuskegee Airmen’s 332nd Fighter Group, helped guard Detroit during the Cold War, and launched patrols after the September 11 attacks. The Air Force transferred the base to the Michigan Air National Guard in 1971.

Today the 127th Wing is the host unit, with A-10 and KC-135 flying missions. Selfridge is still a shared installation: the wing’s base fact sheet says personnel from five of the nation’s six military services serve there. That is the careful way to say it now; the old shorthand that Selfridge hosted “all five branches” no longer fits the six-service structure.

You can explore the base’s history at the Selfridge Military Air Museum, which has indoor exhibits and an outdoor “Air Park” of more than 30 aircraft.